The definition of resourceful is the ability to overcome problems by using your ingenuity to make do with what is available to create a solution. Making it a habit to cook at home more and using your noodle (pun intended) in the kitchen are keys to making the achievement of your nutrition and wellness goals much easier. Here are 5 ideas to help you with your nutrition resourcefulness:

1. Keep WiFi in the Kitchen. Forget those dusty, old, Julia Child cookbooks. The digital revolution has enabled us to ogle an infinite display of culinary delights, all just a click away. What are your goals? Do you want to eat healthy and perhaps lose a few pounds? Be resourceful and find a doable set of meals that appeal to your tastes and cooking talents. Try FREE healthy, calorie-controlled recipe sites online such as: www.eatingwell.com.
2. Healthy cooking doesn’t have to be entirely from scratch. If soaking beans overnight and then cooking for hours on end is simply too time consuming a thought, it’s okay to use canned beans. Just make sure you start with the low sodium variety and then rinse them to get rid of the sodium. There are tons of convenience health foods available at the supermarket, such as brown rice that can be zapped in the microwave and ready in just 90 seconds.
3. Make Your Own Salad Dressing. Commercial salad dressings are notoriously high in sodium. Keep an opaque bottle of extra virgin olive oil and a good bottle of well-aged balsamic vinegar on the counter. Add a spritz of fresh lemon and this trio is all you need to dress your salads in style.
4. Not sure what to do with those veggies? ROAST them! Douse your veggies with extra virgin olive oil and a touch of salt and pepper and roast at a high temperature. Cook them on parchment paper and they will turn out crispy and delicious every time.
5. Replace bread crumbs in recipes with chopped nuts. Get more nutrition and taste by using wholesome nuts in place of refined bread crumbs. Nuts are a superbly heart-healthy food packed with good fat, cholesterol-lowering fiber, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. Try my delicious walnut encrusted salmon recipe.

Being resourceful in the kitchen will help you to improve your diet as well as enable you to make every meal utterly mouth-watering and nutritious!
Dr. Janet’s Walnut Encrusted Salmon

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 salmon filet)

Ingredients

• 4 salmon filets (about 6 ounces each), preferably wild salmon
• 3 cloves of garlic
• ¾ cup walnuts
• ½ cup fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Fresh lemon slices, for garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mince the garlic in a food processor.
Add in the walnuts and process until walnuts are a fine consistency.
Add in cilantro until mixture is thick and pasty.
Drizzle in olive oil and process until blended.
Place salmon on a foil-lined baking tray.
Season both sides with salt and pepper.
Spread the walnut mixture evenly over the fish.
Bake salmon for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Garnish with fresh lemon slices.

Nutritional Information Per Serving (1 salmon filet):

Calories: 456, Fat: 32 g, Cholesterol: 94 mg, Sodium: 658 mg,
Carbohydrate: 4 g, Dietary Fiber: 2 g, Sugars: 0 g, Protein: 37 g

Recipe Source: An excerpt from the book Cholesterol Down by Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN; Published by Three Rivers Press; December 2006;$13.95US/$17.95CAN; 978-0-307-33911-9 Copyright © 2006 Janet Brill, Ph.D. To learn more about this book please visit DrJanet.com.